“You already have the message.”

“I mean the actual document.”

The pot lid rattled again.

“Why are you doing this?” she said.

“Picking at every detail.

You never do this when somebody else makes a decision.”

“I’m doing it,” I said, setting the paper beside the fruit bowl, “because the amount is a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

And then she said the thing that I would turn over for days afterward.